New Girl Season 2 Finale

New Girl Recap: Elaine’s Big Day – Season 2, Episode 25 – Season Finale

New Girl: Elaine's Big Day

It’s the season two finale of “New Girl.” What am I going to do all summer now?

Looks like Fox has a lot of confidence in the show, and rightly so. “New Girl” landed the coveted post-Super Bowl spot in January, to be followed by a new sitcom yet to be named. Congrats!

On with the recap!

The gang gets ready for Cece’s wedding. Everyone looks dashing, and I love love love the sky blue sari Jess has on. I wish I could pull off that color. Schmidt and Winston look dapper in their suits, while Nick comes out rocking a “Miami Vice”-era look – a suit with an undershirt on instead of a button down shirt. In fact, it’s the same suit he wore to his high school graduation.

Hey, Jess, you need to keep a hold of this one because if he has still maintained his girlish figure from high school for over ten years while drinking and perfecting the couch potato pose, well he’s a keeper.  You should lock that down NOW.

Jess calls her dad to take a picture of the gang, but Bob is having trouble getting out of his airbed (he’s not even ready for the wedding yet?). As he is about to take the picture, he sees Nick and Jess cuddle up to each other, so he has Nick move slightly to the right, so much so that he is out of the picture. This starts an argument, and Jess is left taking a solo shot of herself.

Apparently, Nick’s one suit he wore for their “First Date” is at the cleaners because he has to rely upon the kindness of Schmidt to give up his worst suit, which looks a lot like the suit he wore for their first date.

At the hotel where the wedding takes place, it appears the University of Wisconsin is in town for a ball game. With the team comes the mascot, an actual badger. Winston is obsessed with the University of Wisconsin badger and goes to greet Bucky, but there’s no indication he ever actually went to UW, so cue this reviewer’s confusion.

As Schmidt is now in a relationship with Elizabeth, he is able to bring a “plus one” to Cece’s wedding. The ceremony looks like it’ll be long, so Elizabeth reminds Schmidt he needs to use the potty beforehand. She knows him too well. On his way to look for the bathroom, he stumbles upon Cece, who is getting ready for her nuptials. He stops in his tracks at the beauty of her and there’s a palpable connection before Jess yells at him to leave.

New Girl: Elaine's Big Day

Schmidt immediately finds the guys in the bar and tells them that Cece told him in an extensive conversation that she doesn’t want to go through with the wedding. The guys are surprised Cece actually said anything to Schmidt, so when he reveals it all happened silently and through an “eye conversation,” they are not surprised and they go on with their day. Since Schmidt is the only one who heard Cece’s cries for help, he enlists the guys to “sabo” the wedding, but Nick declines, because he’s trying to be a better man for Jess.

Part of the wedding ritual is for Shivrang to come riding in on a white horse, but Schmidt rolls his eyes with a “been there, done that” attitude since he already did that at his bar mitzvah years ago. Nick asks Schmidt again not to go through with his plans and Schmidt berates him for trying t0o hard with Jess. Either she likes him as is or not at all. He shouldn’t keep trying to be someone different for her. He pretends to agree with Nick but then cues Winston to hit the air horn that causes Shivrang’s horse to rear and gallop off past the valet.

The horse is captured and Shivrang is waiting for his bride to come down the aisle while he worries that he might have hurt his “boys”. As Cece walks in on her wedding march, this crazy centuries old folksong called “Cotton Eyed Joe” starts playing. It’s reminiscent of the banjo music from “Deliverance,” but it’s pretty damn catchy.

Jess thinks Nick is in on it when she finds Nick in an audio room with Winston (plus the CD is his). In fact, he was trying to stop Winston, but in Winston’s overcrazed prank state, he denies all plausibility and takes off. As Jess accuses Nick, he tries to defend himself but isn’t doing a good job, as he is fist pumping to the song without even knowing it. Jess calls him childish. Dejected, he leaves and joins Schmidt and Winston on “Phase 3” of the Mission Very Possible: “Sabo Cece’s Wedding.”

As the wedding proceeds, Schmidt comes in looking for Jess’ help because they “went too far.” Jess threatens to mess up Schmidt’s hair if he doesn’t tell her what’s going on. We find out Winston is up in the air ducts with Nick and the badger. Winston, the mastermind behind this particular phase of the prank, plans on dropping said badger onto the priest from the air duct above.

Up in the roomy hotel air ducts, Winston crawls along with Nick behind him. In the next scene, Nick is in front of Winston – how did that happen? The badger escapes and all hell breaks loose.

New Girl: Elaine's Big Day

To finalize the marriage, Cece and Shivrang have to walk around “the block” seven times. Well, actually they walk in a circle seven times.

Jess finds out from Schmidt that Nick was never part of Team Sabo in the beginning so Jess goes up in the ducts herself to find Nick to apologize. Nick confronts Jess about her doubts about the relationship, but before they can get much further, they fall through the vents with the badger trailing behind them. Bob gives Nick a disapproving look, which just adds to his current level of low self-esteem.

After all the mishaps, and only one circle left to finish, Cece admits she can’t marry Shivrang. She tells Shivrang, as she eyes Schmidt. that she doesn’t want to be with him, but wants to be with someone else. She feels bad, but Shivrang admits himself he wants to be with someone else and speaks to Elaine in the audience and tells her he wants to marry her – in a Presbyterian church.

Everyone is wondering who Elaine is when she stands up and declares her love for “Shivvy”. He sweeps her up into his arms — well, more like Elaine jumps into them and they leave for their own happily-ever-after. Did I mention Elaine is played by Taylor Swift? Blink and you’ll miss her guest spot, but this writer could care less about Swift’s appearance. Little does Shivrang know that once they break up, there will be many songs written about him…

Jess apologizes to the exiting wedding guests about the badger. “I don’t think the badger’s actually rabid. I think he’s just kind of a dick,” she tells them, creating a Schmidt-icism of her own.

Nick comes up to Jess and thinks they should “call it” and end the relationship. Jess agrees and as she walks away, we can tell she’s upset and sad. It’s not what she wanted at all.

Elizabeth argues with Schmidt, as she believes he is still in love with Cece – why else would he have gone through all this trouble to sabotage her wedding? He claims he was just doing it as a friend, but then Cece shows up and the two women tell Schmidt he has to choose. He can’t deal with all the pressure and runs away.

Nick is at the bar when Winston’s breaks through one of the vents. He shows Nick  a huge gash in his upper arm where Bucky bit him and bit him good. In his rabid badger haze, Winston has a moment of clarity and is Nick’s voice of reason as he tells him he can fix this thing between him and Jess, that he doesn’t have to follow down the same path as his dad. Nick grabs his jacket and runs after Jess.

New Girl: Elaine's Big Day

Nick finds Jess by the valet, her car at the ready and her keys in her hand. I’m not sure if she’s been standing there awhile, but when she sees Nick, she tells him she wants to uncall it, wants to try to work on this thing they have – whatever it is. She wants Nick to agree to uncall it and not to say no to her plea to do so.

Without a word (maybe they had an eye conversation like Schmidt and Cece had), Nick walks toward her, wrapping his arms around (cue the music) and kisses her with all the passion he feels for her. The kiss is like this John Hughes climactic moment and how appropriate is the song, The Vaccines’ “I Always Knew”; it’s reminiscent of Lick the Tins’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love” that plays at the end of “Some Kind of Wonderful.”

He says something nonsensical (or maybe existential) and they drive off into the sunset. Well, the sun has already set, but they drive off anyway. Where do they go from here? She wants him to turn left, he wants to take three rights…

While season three will explore the newfound relationship between Nick and Jess, it appears it may be Cece-Schmidt-Elizabeth-centric. Like I mentioned before, I’m not sure who is the better couple – Cece and Schmidt or Schmidt and Elizabeth. It’s clear Schmidt still has a lot of feelings for Cece, and most “New Girl” shippers will want them to be together, but how can he break up with Elizabeth? After all he’s done to get back into his good graces. He sacrificed his body for a bunch of pizzas, for goodness sakes! Again, no clear path for Winston – hope he gets his own voice next season instead of being Schmidt’s lackey. Whatever happened to his radio job?

Some observations:

Tonight’s Schmidt-icism: “Bros, EVER before the ho.” Where’s that douchebag jar?

The version of “Cotton Eyed Joe” is from Rednex.

Personally, Jess messing up Schmidt’s hair looked oddly invigorating, like something you would pay for at a salon.

Nick and Winston stay surprisingly clean while they are up in the air ducts. They have some smudge marks on their sleeves, but none on the front of their shirts, which is odd since they have been crawling on their stomachs. Jess’s sari is spotless even with a fall from the ceiling with all the debris.

Love it when Nick screams like a girl.

Winston exits the air ducts with a big badger bite AFTER the badger had fallen through the ceiling with Jess and Nick. This posits the question: How did Bucky get back in the air vents? Was there a second badger (up on the grassy knoll)?

Did you notice that absolutely no one in the bar reacts to Winston breaking through the vent?

What did you think of the episode? What do you want to see happen in season 3?  Give me some ideas on how to handle my “New Girl” withdrawal this summer!


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4 responses to “New Girl Recap: Elaine’s Big Day – Season 2, Episode 25 – Season Finale”

  1. Cecil Avatar
    Cecil

    Loved this episode. But.. Question? Does the writer of this little play-by-play feel like a better, cooler person with the totally gratuitous “this writer could care less about Taylor Swift’s appearance?” Oh, ok. And we care–why? You write comments like:love it when Nick screams like a girl. And you make snotty comments about other people? The show was lucky to have her, she was happy to be there, people enjoyed seeing her and the cast and the show.

    Really, Connie. You read “monthly romance serial novels.” Whatever they are, they sound pathetic. Should I call you pathetic? No. That’s meaner than I can be. I don’t think you’re pathetic. As you grow as a writer though–be wary of being mean just to be mean. You’re not cooler than her, either, ya know?

  2. K.L. Connie Wang Avatar
    K.L. Connie Wang

    I simply stated a fact – Swift’s appearance made no difference whether I was going to enjoy the show or not. The network has been hyping her appearance for a couple months now and even if I was a fan, it would have been anticlimatic. I’m allowed to have an opinion on who I like and dislike. That’s part of the fun of being a writer – to be able to voice those views. I have a problem with Winston’s storyline, too – does that make me a worse writer?

    Call me pathetic for reading romance novels – that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. I’m with the 75 million plus people that enjoy them and I’m not afraid to say so!

    Thanks for reading my article and posting your comment! You get a gold star!

  3. eli Avatar
    eli

    At the end, Jess asks Nick “Where do we go?” to which Nick responds with the lyrics of “Cotton-eyed Joe”, “Where do we come from? Where do we go?”

    1. K.L. Connie Wang Avatar
      K.L. Connie Wang

      Yes. I saw a preview version where the sound is not top quality so it’s hard to hear some of the dialogue. It’s still very Kafka-esque!

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